Kazakh cinema of the independence period — from the legendary The Needle and the “Kazakh New Wave” to today’s films that are reshaping public discourse. We will trace how national self-awareness was shaped on screen, how the post-New Wave generation produced auteurs who conquered international film festivals, and how the “children of independence” learned to speak without internal censorship, creating works such as Harmony Lessons and Goliath.

We will also examine the phenomenon of commercial cinema and its dialogue with Kazakh-speaking audiences, as well as the emergence of a powerful female voice in directing, which has transformed perceptions of women’s roles in society. Special attention will be given to films that reinterpret historical trauma and collective memory, as well as the “popular cinema” of recent years — from musicals like Dos-Mukasan to dramas addressing social injustice.

By the end of the course, you will understand how Kazakh cinema has evolved over the past three decades, which themes have become central for different generations of filmmakers, and how cinema both reflects and shapes our perception of ourselves.

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Course Program:

1. The Kazakh New Wave: the 1980s–1990s

2. Historical cinema as a marker of emerging national identity

3. Post–New Wave: the cinema of auteurs that conquered the world (2000s)

4. The cinema of the “Children of Independence” generation (2010s)

5. Commercial cinema and the Kazakh-speaking audience: the turning point of 2015

6. Historical trauma and collective memory (2020s)

7. Female directors reshaping the image of Kazakhstani society (2020s)

8. Popular cinema: between commercial and arthouse (2020s)